Miss Theodosia"s Heartstrings.
by Annie Hamilton Donnell.
CHAPTER I
"Mercy gracious!"
"_Well!"_
The last utterance was Miss Theodosia Baxter"s. She was a woman of few words at all times where few sufficed. One sufficed now. The child on her front porch, with a still childlier child on the small area of her knees, was not a creature of few words, but now extreme surprise limited speech. She was stricken with brevity,--stricken is the word--to match Miss Theodosia"s.
Downward, upward, each gazed into the other"s surprised face. The childlier child, jouncing pleasantly back and forth, viewed them both impartially.
It was the child who regarded the situation, after a moment of mental adjustment, as humorous. She giggled softly.
"Mercy gracious! How you surprised me" "n" Elly Precious, an" me "n"
Elly Precious surprised you! I don"t know which was the whichest! We came over to be shady just once more. We didn"t s"pose you would come home till to-morrow, did we, Elly Precious?"
"I came last night," Miss Theodosia replied with crispness. She stood in her doorway, apparently waiting for something which--apparently--was not to happen. The child and Elly Precious sat on in seeming calm.
"Yes"m. Of course if you hadn"t come, you wouldn"t be standin" there lookin" at Elly Precious--isn"t he a darlin" dear? Wouldn"t you like to look at his toes?"
It was Miss Theodosia Baxter"s turn to say "Mercy gracious!" but she did not say it aloud. It was her turn, too, to see a bit of humor in the situation on her front porch.
"Not--just now," she said rather hastily. She could not remember ever to have seen a baby"s toes. "I"ve no doubt they are--are excellent toes."
The word did not satisfy her, but the suitable adjective was not at hand.
"Mercy gracious! That"s a funny way to talk about toes! Elly Precious"s are pink as anything--an" six--yes"m! I"ve made consid"able money out of his toes. Yes," with rising pride at the sight of Miss Theodosia"s surprise, ""leven cents, so far. I only charged Lelia Fling a cent for two looks, because Lelia"s baby"s dead. I"ve got three cents out o" her; she says five of Elly Precious"s remind her of her baby"s toes. Isn"t it funny you can"t make boys pay to look at babies" toes, even when they"s such a lot? Only just girls. Stefana says it"s because girls are ungrown-up mothers. Mercy gracious! speakin" of Stefana an" mothers, reminds me--"
The shrill little voice stopped with a suddenness that made the woman in the door fear for Elly Precious; it seemed that he must be jolted from his narrow perch.
Miss Theodosia had wandered up and down the world for three years in be search of something to interest her, only to come home and find it here upon the upper step of her own front porch. She stepped from the doorway and sat down in one of the wicker rockers. She had plenty of time to be interested; there was really no haste for unpacking and settling back into her little country rut.
"What about "Stefana and mothers"?" she prodded gently. A cloud had settled on the child"s vivid little face and threatened to overshade the childlier child, as well. "I suppose "Stefana" is a Spanish person, isn"t she?" The name had a definitely foreign sound.
"Oh, no"m--just a United States. We"re all United States. Mother named her; we"ve all got beautiful names, except poor Elly. Mother hated to call him Elihu, but there was Grandfather gettin" older an" older all the time, an" she da.s.sen"t wait till the next one. She put it off an"
off with the other boys, Carruthers an" Gilpatrick--he"s dead. She just couldn"t name any of "em Elihu, till Grandfather scared her, gettin" so old. She was afraid there wouldn"t be time, an" there wasn"t any to spare. Grandfather"s dead now--she"s thankful enough she didn"t wait any longer. He was so pleased. He said he could depart this life easier, leavin" an Elihu Flagg behind him. An", anyway, Mother says Elly can call himself his middle name, if he"d ruther, when he"s twenty-one--his middle name"s Launcelot."
Elihu Launcelot, at this juncture, toppled over against the little flat breast of his nurse, asleep--or in a swoon; Miss Theodosia had her fears. There seemed sufficient swooning cause.
"Stefana," she prompted again, her interest advancing at a rapid pace, "and mothers--"
"Stefana"s our oldest. She"s goin" to run us while Mother"s away. She"s got a job before her! All I can do is "tend Elly Precious--we"re all boys, but us. But, of course, runnin" the family isn"t the real trouble--not what made Mother cry."
Miss Theodosia sat forward in her chair.
"What made Mother cry?" she asked. The child shifted her heavy burden the better to turn her head. She regarded the beautiful white lady gloomily.
"You," she stated briefly.
This time Miss Theodosia said it aloud and with a surprising ease, as if of long custom--"Mercy gracious!"
"Oh, I didn"t mean you"re to blame; you can"t help Aunt Sarah tumblin"
down the cellar stairs an" Mother not bein" able to do you up."
"Do me--up?"
"Yes"m--white-wash you. Mother was sure you"d let her, an" we were goin"
to send Carruthers to a deaf "n" dumb school after you"d wore white clo"es enough. He isn"t dumb, but he"s deaf. He can"t hear Elly Precious laugh--only yell. Mother heard that you always wore white dresses an"
she most hugged herself--she hugged us. She said you"d prob"ly find out what a good white-washer she was an" let her white-wash you. But, now, Aunt Sarah"s went an" fell down cellar."
"Whitewash--whitewash?" queried Miss Theodosia.
"Yes"m, you didn"t think Mother was a washwoman, did you? Of course she could, but it doesn"t pay"s well. She only whitewashes--white clo"es, you know, dresses an" shirtwaists. She says it"s her talent that the Lord"s gave her, an" she"s goin" to make it gain ten talents for Carruthers. But Aunt Sarah--"
"Never mind Aunt Sarah. Unless--do you mean your mother has had to go away from home?"
"Yes"m, to see to Aunt Sarah. They were twins when they were babies.
Mother cried, because she said of course you"d have to be done up while she was gone, an" so she"d lost you. She said you"d been her bacon light ever since she heard you was comin" home an" wore so many white clo"es."
The garrulous little voice might have run on indefinitely but for the abrupt appearance, here, of a slender girl in an all-enwrapping gingham ap.r.o.n. She came hurrying up Miss Theodosia"s front walk.
"Well, Evangeline Flagg, I hope you"re blushing crimson scarlet red--helping yourself to folks"s doorsteps that"s got back from Europe!
I hope--" but the newcomer got no further, for, quite suddenly, she found herself blushing crimson scarlet red, in the grip of a disconcerting thought.
"I suppose it"s just as bad to help yourself to doorsteps when folks aren"t here as when they are," she said slowly, "but you mustn"t blame Mother. She"d never"ve allowed Evangeline and Elly, if we"d had a single sol-i-ta-ry tree. Or been on the shady side. Or had a porch. Elly"s been pindly, and Mother felt obliged to save his life. It"s been terribly hot. Here, Evangeline Flagg, you give Elly here, an" you run home an"
keep the soup-kettle from burning on. Don"t you wait until it smells!
I"ve got an errand to do here."
The child, Evangeline, relinquished her burden and turned slowly away.
But she halted at the foot of the steps.
"This is Stefana," she introduced politely. "Stefana, you ain"t _goin"
to_? You look "xactly as if you was. Mercy gracious!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: "We"ve all got beautiful names except poor Elly."]
"Yes," Stefana returned gravely, "I am. Now, you go. Remember the soup!"
Miss Theodosia"s interested gaze left the retreating little figure and came back to Stefana and Elly Precious. She was pleasantly aware of her own immaculate daintiness in her crisp white dress. Only Theodosia Baxter would have dreamed of arraying herself in white to unpack and settle. Her friends declared she made a fetich of her white raiment; it was a well-known fact among them that she was extremely "fussy" about its laundering.
"One, two, three," counted the slender girl, over the baby"s bald little head, "only three tucks, an" the lace not terribly full on the edges.
I"m thankful there aren"t any ruffles, but, there, I suppose there are on some o" the others, aren"t there? I"ll have to manage the ruffles. I mean, if--oh, I mean, won"t you please let me do you up? Just till Aunt Sarah"s bone knits--so to save you for Mother? I"ll try so hard! If I don"t, Charlotte Lovell will--she"s the only other one. She"s a beautiful washer and ironer, but none of her children are deaf, and she hasn"t any, anyway. I didn"t dare to come over and ask you, but I kept thinking of poor Mother and how she"s been "lotting on earning all that money. There, I"ve asked you--please don"t answer till I"ve counted ten.
When we were little, Mother always said for us to; it was safer. One, two, three--" she counted rapidly, then swung about facing Miss Theodosia. "You can say "no," now," she said, with a difficult little smile.
Miss Theodosia had been, in a way, counting ten herself. She had had time to remember her very strict injunctions to those to whom she entrusted her beloved white gowns--to pull out the lace with careful fingers, not to iron it; to iron embroidered portions over many thicknesses of flannel, and never, never, never on the right side; to starch the dresses just enough and not too much. All these thoughts flashed through her mind while Stefana counted ten. But it was without accompaniment of injunctions that Miss Theodosia answered on that wistful little stroke of ten. In her soul she felt the futility of injunctions.